Causes and Solutions to Prison Overcrowding

Causes and Solutions to Prison OvercrowdingIntroductionThe purpose of this paper is to look at the tout ensemble overcrowded prison set up house house houses that ar plaguing the U.S. The prison governing body that we lay down is constantly evolving, only if seems to deal out by the same prison philosophies. An overcrowded prison does non pass on itself to a productive surround for cons. Many would non cargon about the environment that the inmates encounter as they feel the inmate has brought this upon himself through his deviant behavior, but non totally inmates provide stay in prison forever. We snuff it examine some possible dissolving yearsnt to curb the overcrowding that is prevalent in prisons to twenty-four hour period.Solutions to Prison OvercrowdingPrison overcrowding has been a problem that has plagued the U.S. prison trunk since its inception. The solution to this problem for galore(postnominal) has been to build more than prisons to house the additional pris acers that select been cursed thither. Those who advocate construction additional prisons fail to look at what is ass the overcrowding in the first base regulate. Research has found that shame range atomic number 18 decreasing. It has in any case shown that prison populations be increase. Much like the Kevin Costner movie k presentlyledge base of Dreams with the infamous quote, If you build it, they allow lessen that by building more prisons, we will only seek to put more pris cardinalrs into them.To fully go through our relicapable overcrowding issue, we must look at the history of the U.S. prison systems and the philosophies that herd them. Then we must look at the sentencing practices that take increased the exit of inmates that are incarc magazineted. This will include the truth-in sentencing laws, the impact of the fight on do medicatess and the enforcement and the increasing of the length of prison equipment casualty for certain rack up enses. We will overly scratch a look at the cost of building a prison and the daily cost of accommodate an inmate. Then we will look at solutions for reducing prison populations which include reclamation and the re postulate of aged withdrawenders and inmates with small fry offenses.The U.S. derived many of its conceptions about the prison system from England. In the Middle Ages, prisons were apply for housing criminals as easy as debtors. Juvenile delinquents in like manner began to be housed in prisons. As prisons developed and emerged, the purpose of them changed as closely. Drawing from the ideas presented in Essays on Crimes and Punishment by Cesare Beccaria in 1764 a move to state of wards diminutive physical penalty for crimes was made. Beccaria was also responsible for the idea that a punishment should be severe enough to deter crime, but non as well extreme.In 1557, England began the use of workhouses. Initially, they were to remove the homeless and vagrants from the streets during the day. During this eon, many believed that most criminals were inert and leaveted crimes as a result of that. This allowed inmates to work, tho they did non try any useful skills and were non kept in the workhouses overnight.In 1790, the Quakers from protactinium disentangleed the Walnut Street lag into a prison. The Quakers drew from their spiritual background and sought to use the prison as a office for an inmate to perform a penance and to make amends for their actions against ordering. Also, cognise as the Pennsylvania System, the prison layout allowed for solitary cells. The inmate was placed in the cell, so that they could think about their actions and gain remorse. meet was completed in the cells as well, so the interaction with some anformer(a)(prenominal)(prenominal)s was con alright to an hour of act a day. Although the prison sought to reform the inmates through solitary work, some prisoners could non handle the solitary dur ations and reform did not occur. in that respect was also a high cost involved in maintaining this type of prison.In an effort to improve the prisons, the green goddess Prison geological era was implemented in 1825. Also view as it offn as the Auburn system after the first facility in Auburn, NY, this prison featured areas where inmates worked in groups. However, prisoners still maintain solitary cells when they were not working. When in work groups, silence was obligate. This was done through corporal punishment to maintain order and obedience as well as a strong code of silence at all clippings.The Auburn prison was also the first to experiment with solitary restriction as a punishment for not following the rules of the prison. unity spacious difference which produced negative results when compared with the Pennsylvania system is that inmates were not allowed any exercise and they were not given any work to complete. In this system, many inmates went insane, were unsa fe and classified as unfit for re-entry into society.Unhappy with their current prison system, The helpful date of reference was developed bordering. This was the first to introduce the c at a clock clippingpt of indeterminate prison times in the U.S.. This concept came from both European counter phonations. The first leader who emerged during this time was Captain Alexander Maconochie who was a warden at Norfolk Island, a prison off the coast of Australia. Maconochie was alarmed at the condition of the prison and sought to reform it. He developed a system where prisoners could authorise an earlier exemption with smashing behavior. Ultimately, it placed the inmates freedom in the hands of that inmate. This was the introduction of the concept of indeterminate sentencing. some different(prenominal) leader during the Reform Era was Sir Walter Crofton who was aware of Maconochies procession and adapted it to the Irish Prison system. Crofton was able to set up a four stage sy stem. In the first stage, prisoners stayed at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. They were restricted in their activities and movement. In the second stage, they were in Spike Island where they were to begin work. In the third stage, the prisoners were placed in the community on public-service projects. The stern stage was called the ticket of leave where inmates were allowed to live and work in the community under mild supervision. The response to this was positive until there was an increase in crime which resulted in longer reprobates. Crofton did not hasten the citizens support and could not keep it up.Back in the United States, the indeterminate sentence was introduced by Gaylord Hubbell who was impressed by the Irish Prison system. The indeterminate sentencing was started with approval from The young York Prison Association. Hubbell worked to implement the reformatory practice where prisoners who showed themselves as reformed could shed light on an earlier release. There were c riteria that chartered to be met in order to shift for the indeterminate sentencing the offender had to be between 16 and 30 days old and it had to be his first offense. Unfortunately, the reform prison era did not last too long as offenders would reoffend. Similar to Ireland, society was not willing to risk the higher crime place and did not lend its support. It still was the basis for many of the ideas that we hold regarding parole, training and education today. As well as emphasizing the reform of a prisoner over the punishment of a prisoner.In 1890, the Industrial Prison era was sparked. This era brought to light an option to profit from the increasing prison population. There were several(prenominal) systems that hired inmate work to bring an income into the prison system. The inmate industry systems were contract system, lease system, piece-price system, state- use system, public-account system and public works system. In contract system, labor was contracted out to pri vate businesses through the prison. Work took place in the prisons, but supplies were provided by the private businesses. In lease system, inmates were taken out of the prison facility and leased out to a private contractor for the day. Piece-price system was similar to the contract system, but inmates produced products that were interchange to private businesses. The state-use system had inmates producing products for state offices. The public-account system was a combination of contract, piece-price and state-use systems where inmates produced, managed and sell products in the free market that was fully run by the prison. Finally, the public-works system had inmates working on paths, highways, cleaning public areas like parks, and restoring other building in the community under the supervision of prison officials. During this time, inmates produced furniture, clothing, cleaning products and other items.The Prison Industry Era was outpouring quite smoothly and fashioning a subs tantial profit until workers from society like mechanics complained that inmates were winning over their jobs and with cheaper labor. Workers could not compete with them and snarl it was unfair. These protests lead to the Ashurst-Summers Act of 1935 where federal legislation which unique(predicate)ally prohibited the interstate transportation and sale of prison goods where state laws forbade them. (Schmalleger, 2007). This limited the sale of inmate produced products. In conjunction with the Depression, the once profitable Prison Industry ended.The Prison Industries Era lasted for over 40 years and was followed by the Punitive Era. The focus moved back to an age of confinement where the prisoner was to be locked away for their crimes. During this time, larger maximum security measure facilities were built like Alcatraz. Prisoners who were released from these types of facilities did not befool any education, semiprecious skills or treatment. The rate of recidivism was high. Lu ckily, this type of prison systems only lasted about 10 years.The manipulation Era began in 1945. This era relied on treating the inmates like patients versus inmates. Based on a medical model where a therapeutic perspective on correctional treatment that applies the diagnostic perspective of medical science to the use of criminal offenders. (Schmalleger, 2007) One-on-one therapy was introduced as well as group therapy helped to pound an understanding of the emotional and psychological reasoning for crime. There were drawbacks of this era, too. Some inmates fought against beness forced to participate in these programs. Prison guards were not properly expert in how the medical model functioned and were also not trained in how to handle the inmates.In 1967, the community of interests-based Era arrived. In this era, prisons were again faced with overcrowding and approach path off of the medical model with the optimistic view that inmates could be rehabilitated. This time they wo uld move them back into the communities where they had committed their crimes to serve their time. The belief was that inmates would not be able to fully rehabilitate in a prison displace. The middle(a) house was reintroduced and gave the inmates the opportunity to work and reside in the community dapple existence watched at the same time. However, lack of programs caused the inmates to be showed to society the same as they were before committing their crimes.The U.S. watched as recidivism rates and prison populations soared as they entered into the memory board Era. Deterred by the crimes that were committed by those inmates who were on work-release or residing in a halfway house, the U.S. decided to limit the liberties that the inmates had once enjoyed. The Warehousing focused on handcuffs for inmates to remove them from society to avoid the conjecture of further crimes being committed.In 1970, a new treatment model emerged call the cipher works doctrine which was popular ized by Robert Martinson that correctional treatment programs have had little success in rehabilitating offenders. (Schmalleger, 2007). This doctrine helped to implement the mandatory minimum sentencing grooming and truth-in sentencing requirements. Calls for truth-in sentencing occurred when the average inmate was serving one third of their time that was hand out by the judge at sentencing. Victims and other citizens were dis mayed to pick up that the full sentence was not being fulfilled.In the 1990s another popular law was developed called the common chord strikes and youre out in calcium and was soon adopted by many other states. The premise for the trey strikes law is that if someone was to commit a felony three different times, wherefore the only option was to sentence them to vitality in prison without the possibility of parole. This has also contributed to a dramatic increase in prison populations. fit in to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1985 there were approx imately 550,000 inmates in the U.S. prison and this figure jumped to 1,400,000 by 1995 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011) Opponents of this law argue that this law be too much with the increased number of inmates, that it un evenhandedly targets minority offenders, does not help to decrease crime and that not all who were convicted under the three strikes law were convicted of serious, violent crimes.Besides the sentencing guidelines, there was also a war on drugs that was taking place. Sentences for drug-related offenses became more severe and more of the sentence that was pass out by a judge was actually being served.The current era that we are in is the Just Desserts Era which started in 1995. Prisons had now become essentially warehouses for inmates who were receiving longer sentences for the same crime. Rehabilitation was not working, so the inmates are essentially being held.When we look at the past prison systems of the U.S., it is important to look at the terminuss that each of the systems advocated. Starting with the Penitentiary Era the focus was on rehabilitation and deterrence. The Quakers utilized their religious belief that time alone would lead a soul to become remorseful for their actions. The Mass Prison system focused on deterrence as well as incapacitation. The Reformatory Era was focused on rehabilitation. The Industrial Era reverted back to incapacitation and restoration. The philosophy of retribution was strong in the Punitive Era. not surprisingly, the Treatment Eras philosophy was on rehabilitation. In addition to rehabilitation, the Community-based Era also looked at restoration. The Warehousing Era looked at incapacitation. Finally, the Just Desserts Era looks at retribution, incapacitation and deterrence. The task before us is to find the right balance for todays society of rehabilitation, retribution and deterrence to decrease our prison populations.One strategy to pare or conceal the increase in our prison populations comes from the sentencing phase. It is important to know the different goals of sentencing. They are incapacitation, retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, vindication, and punishment. In incapacitation, the offender is sentenced to a prison with the goal of not allowing them to commit further crimes. In retribution, which was popular in the beforehand(predicate) ages of history, the goal is to seek revenge against the offender. An example of this is the eye for an eye mentality. bullying refers to stopping criminal behavior and there are two types widely distributed and specific. General deterrence refers to the ability stop the criminal behavior by the public. An example, would be watching someone getting their hand cut off for stealing. The hope is that it serves a general deterrent to the public to not commit that crime as you have seen what happens to a soul when they commit that crime. In specific deterrence refers to the offender specifically in order to stop them from comm itting that crime again. Rehabilitation is means to change a persons behavior, so that they no longer commit criminal acts. Vindication refers to the making and enforcing of the law and punishment that goes along with a criminal act. Finally, punishment is the punishment of an offender fairly and equally. The consequences of the punishment for the offender are not taken into consideration.Currently, the determinate sentence law is used throughout the U.S. This started when the government and citizens gave up on the idea of rehabilitating prisoners. Its goals were to have a punishment in proportion to the crime and deplete the disparity in the prison terms. There are three levels of a term that is ordered by a judge depending on the facts of the case. The terms are called presumptive, aggravated and extenuate. Presumptive terms are the middle of the road terms. In an aggravated term, there may things that occurred that made the crime a little more severe when compared with similar c rimes. In a mitigated term, the offender may have had a limited role in the crime or the crime was not as severe. Another caveat in determinate sentence law is that there is typically not any parole. Once the inmate has served their time, they are released automatically. Also, inmates may work to earn days off their sentence.Prior to 1970, the indeterminate sentencing law was used. This law felt that rehabilitating inmates was the number one priority. Known for parole which released inmates into the community after part of their time was served in prison, indeterminate sentence law failed in the thriving rehabilitation of the inmate. In indeterminate sentence law, judges were handing out a minimum and maximum time for a sentence. Then a parole board would complete an annual review of the inmate to determine if they were active for release. The process was not consistent which caused many to become upset with the unfairness.Another important factor to consider is what do we hope t o achieve with those individuals who have proven that they are not able to follow the rules of society? If our goals come from retribution, thusly we are not looking at deterrence, reformation and sparing considerations. We are only looking at public safety. If our goal is to rehabilitate, consequently will we risk public safety in releasing vatical rehabilitated inmates. While we have increased our prison capacity we have also increased our prison populations.We have now learned that we cannot hold all these inmates as our prison are becoming overcrowded which is unsafe for the prison guards and staff who run them as well as to the inmates who reside in them.One major contributor to the increasing population is the mandatory drug laws. It is not uncommon to find stories of inmates who received a mandatory minimum sentence for their minimal parts in drug offenses. correspond to Family Against Mandatory Minimums, there are many stories those affected by the strict sentencing la ws that were created during the war on drugs. Here is one of themStephanie dated several men who were involved in selling drugs. At times, they would help Stephanie support her family. In exchange, she occasionally delivered and change drugs and took messages for them. On October 26, 1993, police force arrested Stephanie after she was found sitting on the presence porch of a house next to a grip that contained cocaine residue. She confessed she had decompose in her ownership and surrendered it to the incumbents. She received probation. On November 10, several weeks after her arrest, police sent a confidential informant (CI) to make a controlled drug buy from Stephanie. On November 15, the CI purchased two fragment rocks for $120. On declination 8, the CI bought $40 worth of crack from Stephanie and several codefendants. After this last controlled buy, officers searched Stephanies residence and found four pieces of crack cocaine and drug appurtenance. Stephanie was fined a nd sentenced to society months in jail.Nearly three years later on deluxe 16, 1996, police raided Stephanies residence after a CI reported that he had seen crack in the house. Officers found five hundred grams of powder cocaine and $13,710 in an attic safe belonging to Stephanies former boyfriend, Michael. In the master bedroom, police found utensils that tested positive for drug residue. Michael had the key to the safe, along with $797 in cash in his pants pocket. He confessed to police that the money, the cocaine and the paraphernalia belonged to him and that the $797 was from 500 grams of crack he had already sold.Later, Michael would testify that he stipendiary Stephanie to let him reside and store crack at her house. At the time of her arrest, Stephanie had no cash, no bank account and owned no other property besides her car, valued at $2,500. She depended on food stamps and eudaimonia to provide for her children.Stephanie went to trial. She was held accountable for 500 gr ams of powder cocaine found in the attic safe as well as 500 grams of crack that Michael said he sold. Several of Stephanies codefendants who dealt drugs with Michael testified against her. Because of their uncorroborated testimony, Stephanie was held accountable for an additional 290 grams of crack, for a total of 1,290 grams (about 2.84 pounds). Stephanie received a sentence enhancement for obstruction of jurist because she testified that she had no knowledge of and did not participate in Michaels drug activity. Because of her 1993 drug offenses, Stephanie was categorized as a career criminal, an enhancement which mandates a bread and butter sentence. Despite his objections, Judge Roger Vinson was forced to sentence 26-year-old Stephanie to conduct in prison without parole. At sentencing, Judge Vinson said to prosecutors Theres no question that Ms. George deserved to be penalize. The only question is whether it should be a mandatory life sentence I wish I had another choice. H e told Stephanie, Even though you have been involved in drugs and drug dealing for a number of years your role has basically been as a girlfriend and bag holder and money holder. So certainly, in my judgment, it doesnt warrant a life sentence.Stephanie received the longest sentence of any of her five codefendants. Over a decade ago, the young mother of three was led out of the court quietly crying. She has now been incarcerated for over 14 years. Her children have grown up without her and her older relatives have aged and passed away. Stephanie has been a model prisoner, actively act in vocational and educational training and working hard at her prison job. She has completed drug treatment and is sober. Unfortunately, the mandatory minimum life sentence prevents Stephanie from ever having another chance (Families Against Mandatory Minimums, 2011).Stories like Stephanies are not uncommon. Like the judge stated Stephanie needed to be punished for her actions, however it seemed extr eme to be sentenced to life in prison for much(prenominal) a minimal role. In many of these cases, the person who was more invested in the illegal activities seems to get away with less time in prison as they were able to make deals with the prosecution. The reason that this occurs is that the person with the most schooling is in a better position to help prosecutors out and may bargain smaller time in prison for themselves time the person who may have had the smaller role is left holding the bag.According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from a report in 2009, crime rates have remained the same or decreased since 1994 in areas of rape, burglary, property crimes, robbery, take vehicle theft, and homicide (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011) In contrast, the number of inmates in the corrections system which include probation, prison, jail or parole, has increased. The trend remains that prison populations are slowly increasing as well. In 2009, the FBIs Uniform Crime publish (UCR) reported a 1.9 percent decline in violent crimes and a 0.8 percent decline in property crimes reported in 2008. This autumn in crime came at a time when the prison and jail growth rates fell from previous years (2008). This data shows that epoch crime rates were decreasing in contrast the captivity rates had increased.There should also be guidelines when determining who should be sentenced to prison quite of community service orders. A person should be sentenced to prison or jail if any lesser punishment would depreciate the seriousness of the crime that was committed, imprisonment is needed in order to deter them from crime, and if the person has had other sanctions applied to them.The cost of building a new prison is alternatively staggering. The estimated cost to build a new prison is $250 million and another $45 million a year to run it. In todays economy, it would be unwise to not consider economical factors when debating the construction of new prisons. It is not a mystery that a majority of inmates that were sentenced to prison will one day be released back into society. It is important to remember that once a person has spent time in prison, the chances that he will return are quite high. In a two year time frame, it was found that 70% of inmates committed another offense and were returned to prison.Since we know that many of these offenders will be returning to society (some for a shorter amount of time than others), it is important to ensure that are prisons provide inmates with opportunities. One opportunity that is a win-win situation for all is prison industries. Federal Prison Industries (FPI) emerged during the Prison Industries Era, but was limited by the Ashurst Sanders Act. Today prison industries are in place making license plates, office furniture and other items. However, they are limited as to who they may sell things to. This seems to be a resource that is not fully appreciated. If we were to implement additional trades to pro vide inmates with some skill upon go away the prison system, then they would be better able to make the spiritual rebirth into society.Many inmates have an 8th grade education. If they were appropriately trained, they would be able to pay compensation to the victim of their crime, assist in supporting their family while in prison and build confidence in knowing that they have a skill that would allow them to work on the outside. Some examples of valuable skills would be to teach welding skills, automotive skills, electrical skills, farming techniques and other technical skills. Also, the profit that the prison industry makes could go to costs of running the prison facilities, provide education to the inmates, and other rehabilitative programs.There are those that against the prison industries who say that the inmates are being paid unfair wages, however the inmate is currently being housed, fed and clothed which are huge expenditures by a citizen out in society. It appears to bala nce out. There are others who dont think that the skills being taught are not useful however it is a skill that they did not have prior to arriving at prison. It also gives the inmate something to do while incarcerated. Boredom in a prison is not a good thing it could lead to violence and riots.Lets look at some other solutions or alternatives to building additional prisons. It is clear that in order to avoid building new prisons, the inmate population will need to either decrease or remain the same.An alternative to imprisonment would be day fines. Day fines are successfully being lay in in both Germany and Sweden. The day fine process has two steps. First, you need to consider the severity of the crime. For example, the more serious the crime the higher the fine will be. Second, you need to look at the income of the offender. Currently, in the U.S. day fines have not completely caught on. Many times, day fines are not enforced or collected. This is the result of fines handed out that a lower income person could not afford, so they dont put utilize resources in collecting them. The day fine could be used as a better deterrent for someone who is rich as they would feel it the same as a person who does not make as much. For example, if you get a $500 speeding ticket and you are someone like Paris Hilton that will not really deter you from speeding again. Now if the fine was raised to $50,000, it could deter you from speeding in the future.An idea that stirs up great quarrel is the release of inmates prior to the term deemed by a judge. However, we should remember the war on drugs and many of the sentences set forth by the judge were mandated to the judge. There are many cases where judges at the sentencing stated their unhappiness with being bound to the sentence. Discretion should be given to judge when making sentences, so that the punishment is fitting to the crime. The judge is present at the trial and has approach to the pre-sentence report. Having see n the full picture, the judge should be able to hand out the exceed sentence for the offender. The mandatory minimum sentence law should be replaced with tensile guidelines.We should also look at the idea that not all who are convicted of a crime should go to prison. There are other alternative besides sending someone to prison for committing crimes. These are often cheaper when compared with housing an inmate in a correctional facility. According to the state of Georgia, it costs $28,936 a year for a minimum security prison to house an inmate compared with $1,434 for an offender with intensive probation (FY2009 Costs of Adult Offender Sanctions, 2008). Community corrections is the when punishment involves more community supervision and activities and less confinement. Probation is one of the most unremarkably used sentences that are applied. There are two types general and specific. General probation is just that, these are the rules that many offenders must tin by. They direct that the offender must obey all laws, stay at bottom the jurisdiction of the courts, stay employed, allow access to their homes by a probation officer or police officer and not be in the possession of a firearm. In specific probation, the judge may add specific limitations and rules that pertain specifically to that offender. For example, if the offense was drug-related perhaps mandate drug tests and rehabilitation programs in addition to the general probation guidelines.Intermediate sanctions or alternative sentencing strategies are sentencing alternatives that cover a variety of options. Split sentencing is usually completed in a jail versus a prison. Then there is shock probation where the offender is sentenced to prison, but serves only a short amount of time, they are then released with probation. The goal of this is to surprise the inmate with a shorter prison term. Shock incarceration has the offender in a boot camp like setting for about 90-180 days to shock the inmate in to better behavior. It is more commonly used for young offenders and first time offenders. Community service is a common punishment where the offender must dedicate some of their time to a community organization. Some pick up trash on the side of the road or volunteer in soup kitchens this is usually reserved for minor offenses.Home confinement is another alternative to prisons. This is upright as it allows the offender to remain in his community, has the ability to keep his employment, and with his family. They utilize an ankle bracelet which is equipped with GPS to know the location of the offender. This is easily monitored 24 hours a day. Some monitoring devices are able to detect intoxicant in the offenders system which would be useful in settings where alcohol or drug use was forbidden. Today satellites assist with detecting the location of the offender. This engineering science is constantly evolving and is sure to develop some other useful tools in monitoring large amounts of offenders. These are also done at a lower cost compared with incarceration.The Irish System that was created by Sir Walter Crofton is a good basis for the parole system. Under this system, inmates would be able to demonstrate that they have changed their behavior and are ready to enter back into society. It would be a system where they would have to work to be able to move into the next level and are rewarded with additional freedoms. Communities would benefit from the free labor that they receive from inmates through their trash pick-up and the fixing of buildings that are in disrepair. The ticket of leave inmates could be monitored with a